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As the fight for regulatory clarity is in full swing, Binance Australia CEO Lee Travers believes such a structure would prove that the crypto industry is “holding itself to a higher standard” than many believe.
On Tuesday, Travers spoke to Cointelegraph about the current state of local cryptocurrency regulation efforts and how the opportunities available in the industry are limited by a lack of clarity.
This lack of clarity has been cited as the reason why the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) last month indefinitely postponed the pilot program of its cryptocurrency trading services. While there are no rules on the books explicitly banning the new CBA service, Australian financial regulators have pushed for the service to be suspended due to a lack of consumer protection.
Without the rules in place to allow such crypto services to operate, they will not be able to prove their viability.
From Travers’ point of view, the crypto industry is already ahead of traditional financial regulatory regimes for several reasons, and he believes the new rules should reflect this. He said that he thinks “the crypto industry wants to see regulation” for good reason:
“People in crypto want to prove that they are held to a higher standard than what people really think they are.”
Travers believes a prudent regulatory regime will make this higher standard clear to Australians. With or without new rules, analytics firm Chainalysis made it clear in January that when it comes to financial crime, “cash still plays a leading role.”
The cryptocurrency industry differs from traditional finance in that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) do not fit into any existing classification of property or financial products, Travers said. Cryptocurrency is currently classified as property in Australia.
Travers said the distinction between cryptocurrencies and other assets could widen over time as decentralization intensifies, adding that “cryptocurrency suits different products,” which only makes it more difficult to regulate it responsibly.
Travers has named Senator Andrew Bragg as one of the Liberals’ crypto advocates, but the local industry may be at a loss for such a champion now that the Labor Party has taken power for the first time in nine years.
He said that the former Majority Liberal Party considered an industry “with high-paying jobs and contribution to the economy” a good thing. He worries that work on the new rules, which is already underway, will slow down significantly because “the workforce is not immediately focused on blockchain or cryptocurrency,” which could put the domestic industry at a disadvantage:
“This industry needs more regulation because it is difficult to be a service provider in such an environment.”
Overall, Travers looks optimistic about crypto. He shared his beliefs about the future of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the various roles they can play in society.
In the short term, he acknowledged that the paths of the NFT are still unclear and likely to remain mere works of art, but the long-term effects of the NFT are far-reaching for property rights and intellectual property. He said that he thought “NFTs are going to be huge. Intellectual property is why Disney is such a huge company.”
Related: Australian consumer group calls for better crypto regulations due to ‘lagging laws’
Despite the ongoing price crash, with BTC falling below its strike price for the first time since March 2020, Travers is generally bullish on the industry. He noted that in the short term “cryptocurrency will struggle as much depends on macroeconomics”, but it is only a matter of time before the situation changes for the bulls:
“When the fear of higher interest rates subsides, crypto will catch that wind and provide more opportunities when everything sells out.”


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This year’s MSP 501 survey has a lot to say about the state of digital marketing in the channel. According to Deloitte, tech companies that deal in software spend about 15 percent of their annual budget on marketing activities, and service consultants around 12 percent. Data from the MSP 501, in contrast, tells a different story about the indirect sales channel.
Among 501 winners, only 5 percent spend more than 10 percent of their annual revenue on marketing. In fact, eight in 10 put less than 5 percent of their revenue toward marketing activities. This begs the question: Are partners dedicating enough resources to gaining new customers?
While the dynamic of the channel has changed a lot in the last few years, partners’ preferred marketing channels are largely the same as they were 20 years ago. Ninety-four percent of the 501 report relying on networking to acquire new recurring revenue clients, which should be no surprise. Selling on reputation or building on in-person conversations at an event or trade show is a tactic that MSPs, who revel in their role as their clients’ trusted advisers, are comfortable with.
Michael Greer, a digital marketing consultant based in Dallas,says networking is essential to B2B sales and marketing. He advises his B2B clients to think of a long sales process as part of their marketing budget.
“Spend the dollars for someone to go to events, start relationships and then have year-long conversations with potential prospects,” said Greer. “So much of those conversations is comprised of exactly what digital marketers promise to accomplish with an online strategy: building awareness and establishing a reputation within an industry for the purposes of generating qualified leads.”
Perhaps the most interesting revelations from the 501 data come from comparing investment in specific marketing activities between those MSPs that placed on the 501 and those that did not. Might those discrepancies reveal a secret to cracking the channel marketing code?
For example, while almost an equal number of 501ers and this year’s applicants that didn’t place report leveraging networking, a significantly higher number of those ranked (72 percent to 65 percent) utilize formal referral programs. While good user reviews are always helpful in the sales process, in many cases incentivizing buyers can reap big benefits, especially first-time customers. These buyers have no experience with the MSP’s brand, and while a good conversation and clear value prop can go a long way toward ushering prospective clients through the digital buyer’s journey, a small incentive like a referral bonus is often all the push they need to convert into an actual sale.
Reputation in a digital age is also about far more than word-of-mouth referrals and positive customer reviews. We live in a content-rich age where a big chunk of consumers, particularly millennials or younger, do their own preliminary research before engaging with a sales process. That means the companies that are top-of-mind for them are those that provide the resources they need to feel informed.
In these situations, informative, thoughtful content that demonstrates thought leadership can really help grow an MSP into that trusted adviser role and sell buyers on the value of recurring services. In fact, 57 percent of this year’s 501 leverage original webinars and seminars to drive qualified leads. When looking at applicants that were edged out of this year’s list, that number drops to 43 percent.
“[Customers] are often looking for verification that you’re the right company to work with. That definitely starts with even very basic things like case studies,” said Simon Anderson, CEO of managed service provider Reliam. “Have you done this kind of work before? Do you have the expertise they’re looking for?”
It’s worth noting that MSPs with the resources to devote to creative content have probably done their due diligence when it comes to optimizing their online presence, either hiring an agency or having an in-house associate dedicated to improving search engine optimization (SEO).
“We have a whole search engine optimization strategy to ensure that we are getting search results, and search engine marketing to induce leads to come into the funnel,” said Anderson. “When you have more scale, you can afford more. I can afford to have one full-time person fully dedicated to SEM and SEO whereas a smaller company may only be able to spare half a person to spend their time on that kind of thing.”
SEO is big business — really, really big. In the U.S. alone, the SEO market is projected to grow to nearly an $80 million industry by 2020 as people accept that the algorithms and data science that goes into it are far too complex for most business owners to learn, deploy and manage on their own. An effective SEO strategy requires an intensive amount of research into target buyers and competitors, followed by constant reevaluation to ensure only the highest-volume, lowest-cost keywords are used.
Taking into account that many burgeoning partners struggle to carve resources out for SEO/SEM, the discrepancies we see in pay-per-click (PPC) spend — an advertising avenue completely depending on SEO keywords — between MSPs that placed on this year’s 501 and those that did not isn’t surprising. Nearly half of the 501 winners report investing in a PPC or online advertising campaign; that number drops to 39 percent for aspiring applicants.
There are more advanced digital marketing strategies that this year’s survey didn’t ask about such as retargeting, email campaigns and conversion rate optimization. While these strategies are heavily employed by consumer-focused companies, B2B organizations have been slower to adopt them. If the data from this year’s 501 is any indication, the channel is probably just now beginning to dip its toes into these sophisticated digital waters. But MSPs’ slowness to leverage these approaches may not be the worst thing in the world.
Far and away the most valuable thing developing an SEO strategy accomplishes is forcing companies to define their target customer, honestly evaluate the competitive landscape and build tight, focused messaging in order to home in on those elusive keywords. Once a company has gone through those exercises, keywords will naturally find their way into a brand’s persona and presence.
“Google’s algorithms show a definite trend away from prioritizing ‘SEO hacks’ and instead placing value on relevant expert content that truly reflects a company’s value proposition,” said Greer. “At the end of the day, small businesses without a lot of resources should focus on just building a solid brand that clearly reflects who they are and what they offer, and make sure every customer touchpoint reflects that messaging.”

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Market conditions are ripe for acquisitions -- but the one Spartan Stores here was contemplating was simply too risky, the company's chairman and chief executive officer said last week.
Speaking with analysts and investors during the company's conference call discussing second-quarter results, Craig Sturken said Spartan remained open to the possibility of making acquisitions in the future, even though the company walked away from the potential purchase of an unnamed chain -- widely presumed to be Farmer Jack -- adjacent to its operating area.
"You have to look at the risk-and-reward relationship whenever you go into an acquisition, and we just felt that in this particular case that the risk was still a little bit greater than what we thought we should take, and we determined to back out," he said.
Sturken once ran the Farmer Jack chain for Montvale, N.J.-based A&P, which is now seeking to sell it. Last month, Spartan said it had evaluated several strategic alternatives, including both the acquisition in question and putting itself up for sale, and determined not to pursue either course for the time being.
That won't necessarily prevent the company from pursuing other acquisitions, however, Sturken said during the conference call last week.
"[Our] strategies will include evaluating acquisitions of both customer and non-customer stores that fit our strategic acquisition criteria and help solidify or expand our market-share position," he said. "These acquisitions must have the strong potential to improve sales growth and profitability. I will say that due to the dynamic and competitive grocery industry market conditions, our opportunities in this regard have never been more favorable."
Under pressure from its largest shareholder, Loeb Partners, to sell itself, Spartan will continue on its current strategic course, Sturken said, repeating several times during the call his intention to pursue "long-term value" for Spartan shareholders.
Part of that strategic direction could include the opening of new stores for the first time in several years, the company said during the call. After spending the last couple of years refurbishing existing stores, Spartan will explore the possibility of channeling some of its projected $25 million to $30 million in capital expenditures toward opening replacement and fill-in sites.
In the meantime, it is also continuing to add fuel centers and pharmacies to its stores. In response to a question about returns on investment in those augmentations, Sturken noted that fuel centers cost between $850,000 and $900,000 to install, and pharmacies require an investment of about $200,000 to $250,000. Although he did not detail the returns, he did note that both drive sales of other products.
In the 12-week second quarter ended Sept. 10, Spartan said the company faced several competitive openings, which contributed to the 2% decline in comparable-store sales for the period. Comparable-store sales at supermarkets were down 2.3%, while comps at The Pharm drug chain fell 0.4%.
Retail sales declined about 4.4% in the second quarter, to $221.9 million, after the closure of two Pharm stores and the sale of a joint venture store. Operating earnings in the retail segment fell about 3.7%, to $6.6 million.
Distribution sales grew 3.6%, to $263.7 million, which the company attributed both to increased sales to existing customers and to the addition of 10 new distribution accounts operating a total of 27 stores. Operating earnings in distribution fell 11.6%, to $5.7 million.
The company said it was implementing an activity-based costing initiative with vendors as part of an effort to cut costs.
"We are going to be validating that model with some of our large suppliers here in the next 60 days, and we expect to come out of that planning session with some very strong and meaningful changes to those supply chains," said Dennis Eidson, executive vice president, merchandising.
Earnings from continuing operations for the company as a whole were basically flat with year-ago levels at $7.1 million. Total sales fell less than 1%, to $485.5 million, vs. year-ago results.
The company said it expected retail sales trends "to improve significantly" for the rest of the fiscal year, especially as no new supercenters are expected to open, although comps are still projected to be "slightly negative" for the second half.


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The Philippines’s rice imports from January to November fell by 14 percent year-on-year to a little over 3 million metric tons (MMT) as higher global grain prices dented local traders’ appetite.
The latest Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data showed that the country’s rice imports during the 11-month period reached 3.033 MMT, about 492,000 metric tons (MT) lower than the 3.526 MMT recorded in the same period last year.
The decline in rice import volume was caused by the elevated global rice prices due to tight world supply on the back of India’s rice export ban, pundits and industry players noted.
This is the third year that the country’s rice imports breached the 3 MMT mark. The figure was also hit in 2019 and 2022.
Vietnam remained as the Philippines’s top rice import source, accounting for 2.689 MMT followed by Thailand and Myanmar with 161,990.67 MT and 127,818 MT, respectively, based on BPI data.
BPI data showed that rice imports from Pakistan reached 34,625.21 MT while those from India and Cambodia reached 13,734.79 MT and 3,615 MT, as of end-November.
The country also imported 1,000 MT of rice from Taiwan, 12.36 MT from Italy and nearly 1 MT from Spain, according to BPI data.
BPI data indicated that the country’s rice top importer from January to November was Bly Agri Venture Trading with a total import volume of 221,938 MT. It was followed by Davao Solar Best Corp. with 218,348 MT and Orison Free Enterprise Inc. with 184,733.8 MT.
Agriculture officials had said that the country’s total rice import volume this year would be lower than the record-high 3.8 MMT volume last year due to elevated global rice prices.
Agriculture Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio S. Sebastian earlier said the country’s rice imports for 2023 could settle at around 3.1 MMT, about 700,000 MT lower than the 3.826 MMT recorded last year as higher world rice prices discouraged importers from bringing in foreign stocks. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/10/17/costlier-world-grains-to-slash-rice-imports/)


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What will town’s socially distanced high street look like?
- Credit: Copyright: Archant 2019
Gorleston’s high street is often held up as a decline-bucking success, loved and enjoyed by all those who use it.
With an array of independent shops, served by numerous buses, and with a good sprinkling of pop-in parking it is a thriving retail hub.
In the next few weeks it will begin to get back to something like normal - but while that is easily achieved in wide-aisled stores on retail parks, for a tight ribbon of road packed with smaller shops self-distancing does not come easy.
Chairman of the Gorleston Traders’ Association Kevin Huggins has been wrestling with the issue and trying to keep everyone happy.
One way systems and barriers of the type seen in larger supermarkets seem to be the way to go, he says.
At Gorleston the main choice was whether to temporarily pedestrianise, or not.
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Buses and parking are key to bringing in shoppers and with public transport only able to take a fraction of the passengers it did before, that could mean more vehicles.
After much debate the best option looks to be a one-way system for traffic heading north to south towards the library, no parking, and barriers to allow space for people to queue outside shops and maintain the crucial 2m distance.
MORE: Council given £88,000 to re-open socially distanced high streets and tourist hotspotsThat way people could still potentially park on side roads off the high street, he said, and a small golf-buggy type vehicle could be used to ferry those who struggle to walk far to a bus stop in Church Road.
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Walking routes could also be made one way with crossing points installed.
“We are looking at all sorts of things to try and make it as easy as possible,” he said.
“We can only make it available for people.
“As we have seen common sense is not common.
“You have only got to go to Tesco to see not everyone abides by it.
“But whatever is going to happen the world is changing and we have to work it out.”
The few essential shops that had been able to open had seen queues forming, causing passers-by to step out between parked cars into the flow of traffic in order to keep to distancing rules.
Mr Huggins said he hoped on-street and commercial car parks in the area would also relax restrictions to help retailers.
Mark Routledge of retro fashion shop What is Hip? said he was on board with the one-way system option which kept traffic flowing down the high street.
He said the shop intended to open on June 15, allowing two people in at a time.
Although the store had been closed since March under lockdown it had still been able to sell across its social media platforms and had been well supported at home as well as in the US, Mr Routledge said.
Mr Huggins said Norfolk County Council would have the final say over what could be allowed in terms of traffic movement and parking and that he was waiting to hear its response as shops look to open their doors again after almost three months.
Cars would not be allowed to wait for shoppers and drop people off and CCTV cameras would keep a close eye on how people were managing the new regimes, he added.


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Samsung and Apple have been in the news quite a lot lately, mostly as a result of the massive patent lawsuit in which a jury just awarded Apple over $1 billion in damages. Both Google and Samsung have responded already, with Samsung being the more outspoken of the two. However, it would seem that Samsung didn’t say quite all it wanted to a few days ago, as they have just released a statement that could be best defined as “fighting words.”
The Korea Times is reporting that Samsung has “confirmed that it will immediately sue Apple if the latter releases products using advanced long-term evolution (LTE) mobile technology.” Basically, Samsung intends to fight back if Apple decides to use a technology that just might be covered under the patents in its LTE portfolio. Although the iPad already includes LTE connectivity, Samsung’s statement seems directed more towards the iPhone, which would make sense based on the likelihood of a fall announcement.
Although I’m mostly on Samsung’s side in this battle, I can’t say that I approve of this use of their patents. Sure, many (not all) of the patents Apple used to sue Samsung were very broad and general, but that doesn’t meant that Samsung should retaliate in the same way. Whether it is Apple attacking Android or Samsung attacking Apple, the use of broad FRAND patents for infringement lawsuits simply shouldn’t happen. I don’t know what it will take for the current system and situation to change, but responding to a bad patent suit with another one isn’t going to help at all.[BGR]


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Since the ancient Greeks began minting the first coins over 2,500 years ago, cash has remained a staple of doing business all over the world. However, the time of notes and coins may finally be drawing to an end, as consumers, retailers and financial services companies increasingly embrace digital money alternatives.
Ten years ago, six in every 10 transactions involved cash; 10 years from now, that figure is expected to be only around one in 10. Today, more than five million people in the UK are already leading a practically cashless lifestyle, according to the finance industry body UK Finance.
In 2017, card payments overtook cash payments for the first time, and debit cards now account for the bulk of all card payments. As well as the increased convenience and speed that card payments offer compared to cash, the switch to card payments has been driven partly by the sharp rise in the adoption of contactless technology, which allows consumers to pay for goods and services under £30 by tapping their card against a reader – and without needing to enter a PIN.
At the same time as consumers are losing their appetite for cash, there are fewer businesses – particularly small businesses – willing to accept notes and coins. Not only does accepting contactless payments mean retailers can get more customers through the tills in a shorter time, it also helps with accounting and means fewer trips to the bank, all of which bring associated costs for the business.
Accepting digital, rather than physical payments, also helps businesses reduce their losses, including cash going missing due to light-fingered or inattentive staff, or customers passing counterfeit currency.
By 2028, UK Payments estimate that over one-third of all payments will be contactless. However, cards are not the only contactless game in town: mobile contactless payments are also growing in use.
Payments made by taping a mobile phone against a reader to make a payment, are gaining greater acceptance thanks to Apple and Google launching their respective wallet apps, as well as the technology needed to make such payments spreading to more, and lower-end, handsets.
As the cost the NFC hardware that underpins contactless payments continues to fall, the technology is likely to spread to greater numbers of non-mobile devices (it's already available in jewellery, for example) which should ultimately increase transaction volumes.
It's not just mobile wallets that are driving the move away from cash: digital wallets are also providing an alternative for those who don't want to use hard currency. Digital wallets allow users to gather all their payment methods into a single wallet, and are proving handy for making cross border payments.
Digital payments, too, offer an easy way to accept and send money internationally, allowing users to transfer money to any number businesses and individuals in tens of countries, in the currency that suits them.
As the adoption of digital wallet and digital payment solutions continues to grow, financial institutions are continuing to evolve their offerings: Bank of America, for example, recently filed a patent for a wallet that would accommodate cryptocurrency as well as conventional currencies. As financial services companies increasingly offer innovative new forms of wallet, expect to see uptake rise both among enterprises and consumers.
Cryptocurrencies may once have been considered a relative outsider by the traditional financial services world, but the tide appears to be turning. Transaction volumes continue to follow an upward curve and the upcoming entry of companies such as Facebook and even Walmart into the cryptocurrency market looks set to increase adoption. While cryptocurrencies may still be more volatile than cash, growing regulatory scrutiny and big-name backers are likely to entice more businesses to accept them, which in turn is likely to spur greater adoption among their customers.
For those attached to hard cash, there may be some good news. Cash may be in decline, but it's not dead yet: cash will remain a dominant, though not the dominant, payment method for a number of years to come.
Cash has its advantages: it's free to use, it never experiences an outage, it's not hackable, and it's still available to those who can't, or don't want to, use smartphones or other digital technology. By 2028, it's predicted cash will still account for around nine per cent of all payments – around 3.8 billion transactions. Cash's popularity may be waning, but it won't disappear entirely for many years to come.


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You may be able to shop at your favorite supermarket without having to pay extra for their loyalty program.
However, if the store closes for a few months, it could affect your grocery shopping habits for a short time.
This article explains how this could happen.
The company that makes Trader Joe’s grocery stores in the U.S., Sam’s Club, announced earlier this month that its stores will be closing for a period of time starting January 1st.
The company has not released any information on when the stores will reopen, but we can speculate that they will reopen sometime in the next few weeks.
We already knew that Trader Joe, which has a presence in almost every state in the country, was closing stores in March, and that the company would be reopening a few stores in April.
However, Sam’s Club did not provide any details about when its stores might reopen.
As of Tuesday, Sam’s Clubs stores in California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have all been closed.
At the time of the announcement, Sams Club said it would reopen three stores in Pennsylvania and three in New Jersey.
In February, Sam and Brad Pitts saved the day when they purchased a store in the Pennsylvania city of Erie.
The purchase made it clear that the Pennsylvania state government was working to save Sams Club stores.
Samm’s CEO, Kevin Smith, said that he was “very excited” to get rid of the store in Erie.
“We can’t wait to be able get back to serving the customers of Erie and to help them enjoy their Sams club for years to come,” Smith said.
But if Sams Club can’t reopen, we should be concerned about how it will impact the shelves.
According to data from Nielsen, Sam & Brad’s grocery sales have decreased by 7% in the last two months.
While we have heard a lot of complaints from customers, we can’t tell you how we feel about the future of Sam &s; Brads.
The stores that closed will not reopen.
While Sam’s club is one of the most popular grocery chains in the world, it has struggled to make money over the past few years.
Last year, Sam club lost $2.8 billion on $1.3 billion in sales.
If Sams store closes during that time, it would take away a good chunk of the money they are currently making.
Sams club is one of the top retailers on Amazon.com.
Its popularity in grocery stores has helped it grow to a $3.8 trillion company.
So, it seems likely that Sams will close its stores during this time.
Additionally, SAMS store locations could become a niche market for small-scale retailers to compete against, as consumers increasingly want to purchase items that are close to their homes and at their fingertips.
It will also contribute to the health of our countrys economy.
Follow me on Twitter for more food and lifestyle news.
More on foodandlifestyle.com : The 10 Best Things You Need To Know About Nutrition, Weight Loss, &c.
Top 10 Things You Should Know About Food and Beverage Top 8 Things You Can Do For Your Health Top 7 Things You Will Learn Today About How Your Body Works


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MRI Springboard’s on demand webinar looks back at how US downtowns have performed since the start of 2023 with a focus on:
- How pedestrian traffic has been impacted by hybrid working and rising prices
- Trends and patterns emerging across US downtowns since the pandemic
- Insights from industry guests on how they are navigating changes in consumer behavior and economic pressures.
The session covers key pedestrian traffic and market trends since the start of 2023 and over key holidays including insights on downtown performance over Memorial Day weekend.
Marketing and Insights Director, Diane Wehrle, is joined by industry guests who reflect on how their destinations have performed so far this year, the challenges they are navigating, and their outlook for the remainder of 2023.


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India Demanding More
How current Indian demand trends inform expectations of India as the primary driver of global petroleum consumption over the coming decade.
Become a paid subscriber today to view this full analysis of Indian oil demand trends as well as the differences in long-term Indian demand outlooks and join me in my hunt for ever-deeper oil & gas market context.
If you’re already subscribed and/or appreciate the free summary, hitting the LIKE button is one of the best ways to support my ongoing research.
India is widely expected to supplant China as the world’s largest single source of petroleum demand growth over the coming decade and was already the second-largest contributor to global growth last year.
Transportation fuels like diesel and gasoline are expected to make up the bulk of Indian demand growth, bucking the trend of anticipated slowing transportation demand globally and offsetting the slowing growth seen in LPG used as a home cooking fuel.
Large longer-term forecast differences remain despite general demand growth optimism, and there’s a more than 700 kbpd gap between the IEA and OPEC Indian demand forecasts by 2030 given the latter’s ~50% faster trend growth rate assumption.
The growth in domestic diesel and gasoline consumption will manifest primarily as a reduction in Indian exports rather than the rise of fresh import demand given the current structure of India’s petroleum trade.
India is widely expected to be the one the largest drivers—if not the largest driver—of global oil demand growth between 2023 and 2030, and is broadly expected to take the crown from long-time title-holder China sometime over this decade. With an estimated population of 1.43 billion, India officially overtook China as the world’s largest country last year; however, India remains far less developed and oil consumption per capita is less than one-third that of China, let alone advanced economies.
Now, it’s become quite common to see longer-term demand outlooks that have India alone accounting for fully a third—or more(!)—of average annual demand growth in the latter half of the decade. This is not to say that Indian growth estimates have come out of nowhere: India was second only to China as a source of global demand growth in 2023, with consumption advancing ~250 kbpd or 5% on the year. India’s anticipated ascension to the top spot is also not entirely a bullish story, given that slowing growth in China is leaving pretty big shoes to fill.
Depending on your general market disposition, India’s growing importance in demand considerations is either great news (i.e., look how fast India is going to grow!) or dour news (i.e., implies much weaker growth everywhere else, especially in China). Regardless of your specific demand outlook, it’s all but guaranteed that India will play a starring—if not the starring—role. Given this centrality, it’s critical to understand what’s happening underneath the hood of Indian oil demand: what products are growing fastest and why, the debates about how fast Indian demand will grow through the end of the decade, and India’s robust petroleum trade and how it will shape how this demand growth hits the market.


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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- German household products conglomerate Henkel KGaA HEN3, -0.81% maker of Dial soap, said it aims to maintain its earnings per share before goodwill amortization and exceptional items at last year's "high level" in 2005, assuming the U.S. dollar does not "excessively depreciate." Henkel expects to achieve organic growth at constant currencies and after acquisitions of 3 percent to 4 percent in 2005, and operating profit growth "in the high teens" at constant currencies. In 2004, Henkel booked a one-time 1.77 billion euro gain from its stock-swap with Clorox CLX, -1.11% in return for ownership of a Clorox unit.
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It's Thanksgiving and Jackie's made a couple of pumpkin pies today, and soon we'll be digging into her patented sauce with baseball-sized meatballs, sausage and plenty of pasta. What would you expect from a red-blooded Italian woman and a guy (me) who despises turkey?
Jackie's daughter and family, Jacquie and Matt Campman, and their kids, Mikaela, Karleigh and Braedon, will be here, even after going out for seafood at lunch time.
So no turkey for them either!
It was funny, the other day when Trump pardoned those two turkey, I was thinking that every turkey should be pardoned. That way I'd never have to eat one!
Last night on the local TV news there was a report warning people to be careful when they deep-fry their turkey. They said it's a bad idea to put a frozen turkey in hot grease, for example. "That could turn into a bomb," warned the fireman who they interviewed.
They also said a deep-fried turkey should be deep-fried outside because it could be dangerous. Guess a lot of people deep-fry turkeys here in Myrtle Beach and a few kitchen fires must have resulted, because the fireman told viewers NOT to use water to extinguish a grease fire. Good advice.
Turns out, that's exactly what our neighbor, Paul Hudacko, did with his turkey! Who knew?
I've never had a deep-fried turkey. It's always been baked in the oven and you always get stuck with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and such, sometimes even pickled beats, which taste like dirt. I hate all that stuff, especially mashed potatoes with gooey turkey-based gravy.
Of course, traditional pumpkin pie is scrumptious. But I also like apple pie, and since I couldn't get Jackie to bake both today, and since I wasn't about to try, I bought one at Publix just in case. I'm sure it won't be nearly as good as the one Jackie would have made, but wouldn't.
So just what I need. Pasta. Meatballs. Sausage. Italian bread. Pumpkin Pie. Apple Pie. Not exactly the Atkins diet, but oh well, it's only once a year.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Enjoy your turkey!


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All Women’s Market Featured Female, an all women’s market run by women of all ages, allows women to gather once a month for four hours to sell goods, homemade or wholesale.
What started as a little girl’s night out idea during the pandemic has turned into an official public market with over 6,400 Instagram followers and about 50 vendors at each event.
Two years ago, Lauren Wen, the founder of Featured Female and a native of Orem, hosted a girls’ night at her home and continued to other random places. As her group grew, she said she was inspired to expand.
Wen said he wanted a place to create an event where people could come to share their work but also support the community outside of their business. “We wanted to showcase individual women and their stories,” she said.
According to Wen, her time as a photographer also allows her to work with other women who are mothers, students and working women of various professions. These women have also started their own businesses. She wanted a place to highlight and support their work. She said, “We have to organize an event.”
Wenn’s vision for Featured Female helped Christina Olsen, a local sourdough baker, mother of four, and owner of O Burka Bakery. Olsen applied for Featured Female after a friend told her about it while working at a farmer’s market. “I started because I want to make bread and I want to let people know that it’s good to eat bread,” Olsen said.
Featured Female also helps first-time business owners. Jess Lowe, single mom and owner of Basil Village, launched her nature-inspired doll business with Featured Female. “I make dolls because they bring joy to people and they are fun. I like learning about nature and sharing that with the world,” Lo said.
Lo also said it’s important for first-time entrepreneurs to believe in themselves. “For women who want to go into business, you have to believe in yourself and give it a shot,” shares Lo. “What’s the worst that could happen? If you have something special to share with the world, people respond to that.”
The Featured Female market also has young sellers, like Hailey Johnson, the 19-year-old owner of Handmade by Hailey. She is taking a break from college and hopes to build her jewelry business. “I did one semester at Salt Lake Community College, but right now I’m focusing on my jewelry and building my business,” Johnson said. “My goal is to be able to support myself.”
Wen said her startup is what she does on the side.
“I’m actually a broker. This is my full-time job,” Wen said. “I’ve always been more of an entrepreneur. I always wanted to be my own boss.”
Wen also said that creating is a huge part of her life. “Being able to release something into the world that is beautiful and fun has always been my goal. It’s nice to be able to achieve that here at Featured Female,” she said.
According to Wen, Featured Female hopes to expand its market next year by organizing a two-day event every month to accommodate the growing number of vendors and customers. Their next market event is on Saturday 22 October from 10am to 2pm


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Published: 16 Jul at 9 AM Tags: Pound Sterling, Euro Exchange Rate, Dollar Exchange Rate, Forex, Swiss Franc Exchange Rate, Euro Crisis, UK, Economy, Inflation, France,
The trading week started with a return to ‘risk appetite’ after data showed that Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell from 7.7% to 7.5% in the second quarter in line with expectations.
This drove the world stock markets into further positive territory with the FTSE100 index in London finishing at a 7 week high and the Dow in New York close to all time record highs.
In the UK, the pound received support from the Ernst & Young Item Club which reported an improving outlook for the UK economy. The forecaster reported that the UK economy will expand by 1.1% this year, compared to an April estimate of just 0.6%.
Meanwhile, property website Rightmove said that home sellers predicted values would now climb by up to 4% this year instead of the 2% previously forecast. Rightmove also reported that the price of UK property rose for the seventh consecutive month in July showing an increase of 0.3% on the previous month.
And finally on UK news, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported that the recent warmer weather in June encouraged shoppers onto the UK High street as consumers took advantage of store promotions. Footfall in June was 0.1% higher than a year ago and up from a 0.7% decline in May.
BRC's Director General Helen Dickinson said "The UK High Street was busier in June... The relatively strong UK wide figures are reflected in modest increases in footfall in out-of-town retail, although shopping centres did not perform quite so well. The improvement in the weather may well have contributed to this. Our recent retail sales figures showed a strong performance from fashion and footwear and it is likely that shoppers took advantage of the start of the sunshine in June to visit their local high street and buy items for their summer wardrobes."
Elsewhere, the US dollar recovered some of the ground lost last week ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony to Congress later this week.
The dollar was hit last week by dovish comments from Bernanke when the minutes of the last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting was published. Bernanke said that the FOMC was in no rush to raise interest rates in the US, even when US unemployment falls to its key target of 6.5%.
Yesterday saw the publication of a mixed bag of US economic data with US retail sales showing weaker than expected growth of 0.4% in June while a separate Empire State manufacturing survey advanced for the second month running, rising to 9.5 in July from 7.8 the previous month.
The euro emerged largely unscathed from the day’s trading despite the loss by its second biggest economy, France of its last major triple-A credit rating; ongoing political concerns about Portugal and data showing another decline in German exports.
In Portugal, President Anibal Cavaco Silva set the three main political parties a deadline of 21 July to agree on the “national salvation pact”. Cavaco Silva has the power to dissolve the Portuguese Parliament called on the political leaders to agree to the terms of the €78 billion bail-out and follow through on measures after a series of politicians resigned over disagreement with the way austerity was being handled.
Today sees the publication of inflation data from both the UK and the US.


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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Used car sales are on the rise and many are avoiding dealerships and having the vehicles delivered to their homes.
But scam artists are capitalizing on this new way to buy a car.
Facebook Marketplace is where Carolyn Bui thought she found a great car for her son in college. A 2012 Honda Accord for just $2000.
"I was a little doubtful, a 2012 could be $2000," Bui said.
But the seller told Bui the car was discounted for a quick sale because her husband died and she was leaving for the military. Bui asked to see the car but was told it was in storage and would be delivered instead.
"I received another email from eBay that the car is shipping to my son," Bui said.
She received a contract that appeared to be run through eBay. So Bui sent the seller $2000 in gift cards. But the email was a fake and the whole thing turned out to be a scam. The car never arrived and the gift cards were drained.
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Experts say you should never pay someone in gift cards.
"If you paid via gift card or wire, it's unlikely you'll get your money back," according to Steve McFarland with the Better Business Bureau
McFarland has seen a rise in car delivery scam reports during the pandemic.
The BBB projects it will receive more than 450 complaints this year, with those victims losing over $1 million. And that's just people they've heard from. The group believes thousands of Americans have been taken by the scam.
Experts say there are warnings signs to look for:
- A car priced well below market value
- The seller says they are leaving for the military or there's been a death in the family
- They won't meet in person, often citing COVID as the reason.
- The scammers ask to be paid via wire transfer or gift cards
- They want you to do this transaction very quickly
Authorities say the con artists are often overseas, making it very difficult to catch them.


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PR NewswireNov 30, 2013 7:48 AM By Tim Parry
Ecommerce sales reached $1.93 billion on Black Friday, an increase of 39% over Black Friday 2012, according to Adobe Digital Index 2013 online shopping data.
PR NewswireNov 29, 2013 4:12 PM By Tim Parry
Thanksgiving Day became a $1 billion ecommerce sales day. Actual sales came in at $1.062 billion, according to the Adobe analysis based on 180 million visits to more than 1,000 U.S. retail websites.
PR NewswireNov 29, 2013 11:26 AM By MCM Staff
Walmart.com processed nearly 400 million page views on Thanksgiving Day, including customers who used mobile devices and tablets.
PR NewswireNov 26, 2013 5:56 PM By MCM Staff
A recent survey of nearly 1,000 merchants has found that Black Friday and Cyber Monday might not be a major success in terms of sales for some retailers. In fact, according to the survey from Newtek Business Services, 70% believe their sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday will remain unchanged compared to 2012 sales.
PR NewswireNov 26, 2013 5:07 PM By MCM Staff
For the holiday season-to-date, $18.9 billion has been spent online using desktop computers, marking a 14% increase versus the corresponding days last year. comScore says that trend will continue through the end of the holiday season.
PR NewswireNov 26, 2013 11:25 AM By MCM Staff
Sears and Kmart will make Cyber Monday 2013 seem to last forever… The Sears Holding-owned mass merchants will kick off Cyber Monday sales on Sunday, and run specials through Tuesday.
PR NewswireNov 26, 2013 9:39 AM By Tim Parry
Less than 7 weeks after Jo.s A. Bank looked to acquire troubled apparel merchant Men’s Wearhouse, Men’s Wearhouse made an offer Tuesday to acquire Jos. A. Bank for $1.2 billion.
PR NewswireNov 25, 2013 10:30 AM By Tim Parry
Walmart Stores Inc’s board of directors has elected company veteran Doug McMillon to succeed Mike Duke as president and chief executive officer, effective Feb. 1. McMillon was also elected to the company’s board of directors effective immediately.
PR NewswireNov 21, 2013 2:23 PM By Tim Parry
Williams-Sonoma Inc.’s direct-to-customer revenues for the third quarter were more than $511 million, a 14% increase compared to the same period in 2012. Direct made up 49% of all revenues for the comapny.
PR NewswireNov 21, 2013 8:03 AM By Tim Parry
Sears Holdings said in its third-quarter earnings release that it has seen 17% year-to-date growth in its online and multichannel sales over the prior year. However, total sales for the parent company of Sears and Kmart was down 3.1% for the quarter.


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By Barbra Murray
The assertion that the regional shopping mall is a dinosaur is just a nasty rumor, according to Transwestern. The real estate firm released a new report, Why Mall Reuse Is Just Beginning, that debunks the myth of the mall’s demise and shines a light on how these properties can find success through new incarnations.
Malls, and brick-and-mortar stores in general, really do have a future. “The assumptions that all purchases are moving online, all retailers are going bankrupt, and all Millennials reject the suburban mall and the lifestyle it represents are grossly exaggerated,” Brian Landes, author of the report and director of GIS/Location Intelligence for Transwestern, said in a prepared statement.
There’s smoke, yes, but there’s no fire. As noted in the report, store closures are at a peak not seen since the height of the Recession in 2009. Year-to-date, major retail chains have announced plans to shutter 3,500 U.S. stores accounting for an aggregate 62 million square feet, and experts forecast that the store-closure figure will reach 8,600 by year’s end. However, the U.S. retail market logged net absorption totaling 105 million square feet in 2016, pushing the national occupancy rate up nearly one full percentage point. As for shopping malls, the retail sub-sector recorded an occupancy level of just over 95 percent last year, and continued to see positive absorption, as has been the case since 2010.
SHOPPING MALLS AREN’T DESTINED FOR EXTINCTION
The survival of shopping malls amid booming e-commerce, ongoing store closures and other challenges can be partially attributed to the enticement of new tenants via strategic marketing and property upgrades. In the report, Transwestern points to such properties as Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust’s Springfield Town Center in Springfield, Va. PREIT acquired the mall for $465 million in 2015 and continued a $250 million renovation and expansion program. Upgrades helped push the occupancy level up to 100 percent, bringing in such new blood as Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH, and plans for the addition of 3 million square feet of commercial and residential space will likely secure the asset’s relevancy.
Another survival tactic: the conversion of properties that are no longer viable as retail destinations. Highland Mall, the first suburban shopping mall in Austin, Texas, commenced its reincarnation in 2014, when new owner Austin Community College converted a former JC Penney store into a 214,000-square-foot campus one year before closing the mall altogether. ACC is still in the midst of transforming the former shopping center; the company established a public-private partnership with RedLeaf properties to further redevelop the site, starting with a multifamily project. Ultimately, a full-mixed-use community will take shape.
Simply put, malls are not destined to become a thing of yesteryear. “The reputation is not totally groundless, but options do exist for owners. As we see more repurposings, these success stories will counterbalance some of the negativity,” Landes told Commercial Property Executive. Still, it can be difficult to shake a negative perception. “The narrative will continue as long as the ongoing cycle of retail downsizing and bankruptcies continue,” he added. “The sector needs to find new growth strategies and new alternative uses for old space. Those new uses may not be retail uses at all. The future of retail will be joined to medical, office, entertainment, and more. The future of retail is less about selling goods and more about creating experiences and lifestyle destinations.”
Image courtesy of Austin Community College


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For a generation, the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors in California handled more than 40 percent of all container cargo headed into the US and epitomized the power of a globalizing economy. Today, the ships—mostly from Asia—still dock, but they must wait in a seemingly endless conga line of as many as 60 vessels, sometimes for as long as three weeks. These are the worst delays in modern history, and the price per container has risen to as much as 10 times its cost before the pandemic. The shipping crisis is now projected to last through 2023.
A pandemic-driven shortage of parts and labor has combined with a congested transport system to create an inflationary spike, with shipping rates doubling on some routes. Prices for everything from soybeans to natural gas have soared as supplies take longer to produce and arrive, and this high inflation is wiping out wage gains in the US, the UK, and Germany. The chaos on the ground may not disturb the lifestyles of the tech and financial elites, but it is hurting the middle and working classes, the groups most threatened by surging inflation.
The supply chain disaster has also revealed the existence of crippling economic dependence, particularly on China, in high-income countries. Today, whole industries in the West—from medical equipment to chip and car makers to food—rely on China for finished products and key components. When China cannot (or decides not to) supply these parts, whole industries suffer debilitating supply chain shortages. The notion of a rational, self-regulating market system is unraveling and may yet presage the demise of the prevailing neoliberal era.
Walking away from production
For generations, business consultants have persuaded businesses large and small to move their production to China in search of cheaper costs. This has had a devastating effect, particularly in the United States, where between 2004 and 2017, the share of world manufacturing shrank from 15 to 10 percent while reliance on Chinese inputs doubled. The trade deficit with China, according to the Economic Policy Institute, has cost as many as 3.7 million jobs since 2000. The consequences have also been severe in the UK, which suffered 1.5 million job losses in manufacturing between 1997 and 2009, in part due to climate policies that threaten the last vestiges of heavy industry in the country that invented it.
In the face of these trends, the general response of the Western elites has been “Why worry?” Reflecting the ideological leanings of the American establishment, Christina D. Romer, the former head of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration, dismissed concerns about manufacturing policy as nostalgic “sentiment,” declaring, “American consumers value health care and haircuts as much as washing machines and hair dryers.”
But unlike the local hair salon, the market for washing machines is national and global and these goods have to be transported, often over great distances. A factory that makes parts for washing machines in a city, state, or region draws money to the local community. Moreover, manufacturing has one of the highest multiplier effects of any sector—one manufacturing job in a community is likely to generate numerous other direct, indirect, and induced jobs, both locally and elsewhere.
In the midst of the pandemic, even the world’s richest regions—the European Union, the United Kingdom, North America—found themselves without basic medical equipment like masks, and even the compounds needed to make critical chemical treatments. In the early critical months, “China's decision to block exports of these goods led to widespread shortages,” observes Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations. “There is also the concern that an increasingly assertive China might seek to exploit the world's dependence on it for political purposes.”
This disaster, now playing out across the industrial landscape, reflects the fracturing of supply chains over several decades. A generation of politicians, economists, and pundits, particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries like Australia, have paid little attention to nurturing the “industrial commons,” which encompass production, research and development, supply chains, embedded process development, and engineering capacity.
This pattern affects industries besides medical equipment. This year, auto production was curtailed due to a worldwide shortage of semiconductors tied to a recent drought in Taiwan. America’s push into renewables threatens to further bolster China’s dominance of the solar panel industry and production of the essential metals needed to produce “clean” energy and electric cars. The West’s trade deficit now extends even to high-tech products. When companies move production abroad, they often shift research and development as well. Remarkably, this has also included sources of critical components for military goods, many of which are now produced in China.
Reshoring: A possible answer
Camille Farhat—a former top executive at General Electric, Baxter, and Medtronic, and now CEO of Michigan-based manufacturer RTI Surgical—told me that many products, including medical supplies, can be produced domestically. Farhat hopes the pandemic will convince other business leaders to stop “destroying the supply ecosystem” that makes production possible. “To stay safe, you have to do contingency planning—you have to restore the network and maintain surplus production capacity. Hopefully, we are learning that lesson.” There are signs that some are heeding Farhat’s advice. Japan, France, the UK, and the European Union all recognize that dependence on China carries enormous political and economic risks. Japan is even offering loans to lure companies back home from China.
There are signs of some change in the corporate suite as well, even predating the current crisis. McKinsey and Company surveyed supply chain executives last year and found that nearly all respondents believe their supply chains are too vulnerable. According to March 2020’s Thomas Industrial Survey, COVID-19 supply chain disruptions aggravated an appetite for locally sourced materials and services—up to 70 percent of firms surveyed said they were “likely” or “extremely likely” to re-shore in the coming years. Similarly, a UBS study revealed that as many as 50 or 60 percent of firms now producing in China have moved or are planning to move.
This shift includes some major companies, like Black and Decker, who have moved production to a new facility in Fort Worth, Texas, as part of its reshoring strategy. Appliance giant Whirlpool reshored 400 jobs, along with General Electric, Apple, Caterpillar, Goodyear, General Motors, and Polaris. Little Tikes, a major American toy maker, has started shifting production out of China and back to Ohio. When Little Tikes started out more than 40 years ago, everything was made in the United States, but most production moved to China in the 1980s and ‘90s, when the Chinese manufacturing sector began to take off. Now, “the wheel is kind of coming full circle,” Executive vice president and worldwide general manager Thomas Richmond told me.
Of course, such moves will be resisted by companies that have grown hopelessly dependent on far-flung supply chains and no longer possess the skills to make their own products. Some analysts suggest that large-scale reshoring to North America will require strong government action. Yet there are reasons for optimism. President Trump's tariffs may not have done much to revive US manufacturing, but the Reshoring Initiative’s Harry Moser told me that the annual number of jobs returning from offshore has increased from 6,000 in 2010 to over 400,000 in 2019. Cumulative jobs brought back represent about five percent of the United States’ total industrial employment. In 2019, for the first time in a decade, the percentage of manufacturing goods imported to the US dropped, notes a recent Kearny study, with much of the shift coming from east Asia.
The China challenge
The supply chain crisis has made plain the grave threat posed by China’s rise. In the early stages of China's embrace of capitalism, the country’s industrial push was widely welcomed as a triumph of liberal globalization. China, it was believed, simply wanted to succeed, and would do so in a manner at least somewhat congruent with Western values. Its trajectory was expected to follow that of Japan, Singapore, or South Korea, all of which lack China’s military power, both in population and resources.
But under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China has nurtured an economy that works in a profoundly different way to those of capitalist countries. In the West, profits and individual wealth accumulation drive economic progress. Although Chinese people may also want to get rich, the primary goal of the CCP is to bolster the Middle Kingdom’s global power and influence. In China, the regime employs its power to restrain and even imprison the country’s entrepreneurs if they defy its authority. Social media is used as a political tool to promote China’s ascendency, even on ostensibly frivolous sites like Tik Tok.
China’s agenda has stretched beyond consolidating its hold on existing industries. Now it seeks to dominate such fields as artificial intelligence, bio-medicine, and the dominance of space that will likely shape the future economy. Economist Yi-Zheng Lian argues that stealing technology is now encouraged as China becomes a “nation of patriotic thieves.” The basic rules that underpin capitalist economies simply do not much matter, big time investors now lament.
China is also determined to promote its alternative authoritarian model of governance, particularly in developing countries. This drive could accelerate with China’s military expansion, and may yet include the conquest of Taiwan, which is now the world’s leader in semiconductor technology. The feisty island nation is now subject to aerial incursions from the mainland and could be blockaded. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s decision to build a $12 billion new plant in Arizona could be critical to assuring secure supplies for America’s manufacturers.
Needed: A policy and political response
Revitalizing our “industrial commons” requires bold new initiatives and measures from our economic past, which saw some very successful efforts to spark industrial growth during World War Two and the Cold War. Indeed, as two Harvard researchers have suggested, “Believing in the power of markets does not preclude the judicious use of appropriate government policies.”
While rejecting Trump’s crude unilateral approach, the Biden administration has continued to pursue many of its predecessor’s themes, including proposals to boost the domestic semiconductor and steel industries. The Biden plan would spend $300 billion on R&D to revitalize American industrial competitiveness and invest in alternatives to four-year colleges, trade schools, apprenticeships, and community colleges. A more ambitious part of the plan involves the use of taxes, subsidies, and public-private partnerships to encourage companies to retain the capacity to make critical supplies during a national emergency.
Reshoring will require tariffs and bans, but also incentives, including tax policies that encourage industrial investments, loans and loan guarantees, grants, public-private partnerships, and supportive educational and physical infrastructure. Additionally, steps could be taken to promote the development of critical rare metals outside of China.
Western countries could also justify shifts away from China on environmental grounds. For businesses and consumers, attempts to move out of China could cost as much as $1 trillion, but would detach firms from the country’s notoriously high carbon supply chains, which emit more greenhouse gasses than the United States and the European Union combined. Indeed, according to one recent study, China is home to 23 of the 25 largest cities in terms of GHG emissions.
A post-globalist politics?
Addressing our supply chain vulnerabilities is not just good policy but also good politics. Robust efforts to counter China’s mounting challenge in science and technology, such as the US Innovation and Competitiveness Act, passed the Senate by a wide margin. A recent survey by the left-leaning Center for American Progress found that far more Americans prioritize protecting US jobs and reducing illegal immigration than progressive goals like combatting climate change and improving relations with allies.
Despite the much-ballyhooed consumer benefits of low-cost imports, the vast majority of Americans seem to be willing to pay higher prices that would come from moving production out of China—a fact that has encouraged retailers such as Walmart to seek out more domestic suppliers. The current supply chain crisis can only reinforce these trends. Economic boycotts of Chinese goods and firms—a successful example of which is the US attempt to thwart telecommunications giant Huawei—may be a harbinger of things to come, at least in strategically critical areas.
Some may see such an effort as doomed, particularly on Wall Street, a bastion of pro-China sentiment. But the Middle Kingdom may be far more vulnerable than widely thought. China’s financial system is only now feeling the impact of massive but unwise investments in high-rise offices and residential towers, epitomized by the Evergrande’s pending bankruptcy. A rapid decline in the workforce by over 200 million by 2050, a stubbornly low birth rate, and growing class conflict could also pose challenges and provide opportunities for competitors. More critically, Chinese regime controls could derail innovation. Certainly, blocking data and analysis from the rest of the world is not the route to information-era dominance.
Handing the industrial and technological future to authoritarian states is a recipe for undermining our own democracy. Of course, free countries will still trade with autocracies, which seem to be ascendant. But the focus needs to be on maintaining primary supply chains with partners who essentially conform to the rule of law and are not seeking to establish a global hegemony. What’s needed is a series of alliances with likeminded countries that generally follow liberal capitalist values and legal norms. This can be seen in the new defense pact between the US, the UK, and Australia, with potential growing ties to Japan, South Korea, and India.
In the long run, capitalist order can only be maintained by a common belief in basic principles of fairness and legality. The ships stalled at sea and empty supermarket shelves and relentlessly higher prices represent warning signs of a new and dangerous economic reality. We can either accept dependency as “the new normal” or we can address it directly, abandoning dreams in favor of approaches based on reality and greater self-reliance.
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Families and friends get together to watch the best team in each pro football conference play to win the National Football Leagues (NFL) highest honor. People from all walks of life bear witness to gladiator-like football players duke it out to win the crown jewel of football. Each stadium they will play at becomes a modern-day Colloseum. And the only one winner comes out of the stadium in every Super Bowl played. Super Bowl victory parties are always to follow, and the pandemonium never ends. Super Bowl Sunday has turned into a grand day for advertisers as well.
The prominence of advertising in the telecast, it is appropriate to ask whether people who plan to watch the Super Bowl look forward more to the game itself or to the commercials. Obviously, the game still takes precedence for most viewers. The Super Bowl has been a crucial part of the advertising world each year. Super Bowl ads have become a cultural phenomenon per se, and most consumers usually say that they watch the advertisements and commercials more than the game itself. It is a unique yet efficient way of conveying an advertising message across consumers.
Watching ads posted on the Web became a habit for consumers, not to mention news programs preceding the game. Most suprisingly, people watch them again in the internet through YouTube and other digital video recorders. More than any other sporting event in America, the Super Bowl has truly become a cultural phenomenon. According to 1999 National Football League figures, more than 138 million people in the United States alone watched the Super Bowl, with over 750 million total Super Bowl viewers in 187 countries.
The Super Bowl has become a mythical spectacle of epic proportions that in the classical manner of mythical beliefs and ritual activities is a communal celebration of and indoctrination into specific socially dominant emotions, life-styles, and values. The Super Bowl integrates an eclectic group of institutions: sports, television, advertising, and the American corporate culture. The Super Bowl serves as an end-of-the-season celebration, glorifying revenues accumulated by team owners, advertisers, media outlets and many other businesses that share in the tremendous profits generated by the game of professional football.


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The Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond Gallery drops players into history
With the release of EA's Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, gamers have their first dedicated WWII virtual reality experience from a AAA studio. The game is the first release from the Medal of Honor franchise since Medal of Honor: Warfighter in 2012. Set in the European theater, Above and Beyond has players take on the role of an OSS agent fighting alongside the French Resistance against the Nazis in its single-player campaign. Played entirely in VR on either the Oculus Rift or Steam VR, Above and Beyond also includes traditional player vs. player competitive multiplayer and a survival mode. However, the game's signature feature is its Gallery mode.
A longstanding inclusion with Medal of Honor games, the Gallery mode provides players with insight on the real-life soldiers and their stories that inspired the game. As players progress in the single-player story, documentaries in the Gallery are unlocked. “The goal of Medal of Honor is to be grounded and emotionally authentic. To be as true as we can to the people who actually fought in it and lived in it” said Peter Hirschmann, game director of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, “The goal is to tell and show as much truth as possible and let people get the tiniest of glimpses of what it must’ve been like.”
Hirschmann is no stranger to telling stories as he wrote and produced the groundbreaking original 1999 Medal of Honor game. He brought on board Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Anthony Giacchino to produce the Gallery mode. Giacchino, who is well-known for his WWII documentaries featured on The History Channel, sought to bring a human dimension to the game. Over 16 million Americans served in WWII. In 2019, the VA estimated that less than 390,000 were still alive and nearly 300 died every day. With the greatest generation fading away, Giacchino wanted, "for people to hear their stories before it's too late." Developer Respawn partnered with Honor Flight to bring WWII veterans to the locations of historic events that they took part in to conduct interviews.
In the Gallery mode, and through the power of VR, players will be able to sit next to these veterans and hear them tell their stories. They will walk alongside them on the battlefields that they fought through all those years ago. "It’s an amazing tool for transporting people into the stories that we’re telling," Giacchino said of VR. "You’ll be able to go to Peenemünde where the V2 rocket program was, or Omaha Beach, parts of the world you’d otherwise never get to see."
Above and Beyond offers players an engaging gaming experience, but an even more powerful and emotionally impactful story-telling experience. While new technology like VR will inevitably become antiquated and games like Above and Beyond difficult to play, its Gallery mode serves as a timeless historical record and testament to the veterans of the Second World War. Giacchino has confirmed that the team is working on a way to bring the Gallery mode to a wider and more mainstream audience without the need for a VR headset and gaming PC. “The Gallery will forever be the thing that lives on, a hundred years from now.”


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I recently did a quick linkedin question and answer session with marketing experts and social media enthusiasts from different parts of the world. As, the various recent research studies contradicts the co-relation between the sleeping hours and time spent on social media with few suggesting youngsters spending more time where as the research led by University of Hampshire confirming there is no relationship between social networking and the sleeping time.
Well, contradiction in research always happens when it is survey based as the geographical, cultural and demographic elements differs and besides that penetration of internet, technology, social networking popularity also varies.
Be it whatever the situation marketers are rejoicing the era of social media and with increase in number of users + the more time spent is a longevity beckon of the era.
Drew Howard the Marketing Director at BlueCamroo Inc consider people spending more time on Social Media as a good sign. He feels the less people sleep and more time they spend on Social Media, the greater the chances are of someone stumbling across his message and the more face time his brand can have with customers.
Majority of Social Media enthusiasts sleep hearing the chirps of tweetdeck, if not there are youngsters who prefer playing poker, farmville and other applications. The revolution of keeping awake and spend more time on internet has started and this makes companies happy whose marketing strategy revolves around the new media.


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Was thinking about, how many of this systems are using pi ?
Interesting, thanks for sharing Wolfgang!
It's nice to think the PI System system is being used by both Microsoft and eBay (as far as Data Centers on this list) to monitor and improve their energy usage and efficiency.
It's a very interesting topic. The carbon footprint of an online search is has been discussed a lot. The estimates are all over the map though:
"A Harvard University physicist says a typical search on a desktop computer generates about 7 grams of carbon dioxide. Thus, performing two searches is comparable to bringing a kettle to boil, according to a report Sunday in The Times of London. While that may not sound like a lot, the report notes that Google handles about 200 million searches daily.", source.
In this article the estimate is 0.2 grams of CO2 per search.
Retrieving data ...


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Wall Street’s major banking firms build their reputations, in part, on their ability to see the dark future clearly. JPMorgan has a storied name on the Street, and the banking giant’s Asset Management team has recently been casting its collective eye forward.
“We are increasingly convinced that the pandemic will leave behind few economic scars, however we expect the policy interventions at the height of the crisis will have a long-lasting impact on markets… Our overall message is optimistic,” said John Bilton, head of global multi-asset strategy.
Keeping that in mind, we’re taking a look at two stocks recommended by some of JPMorgan’s top analysts. These are analysts who stand tall among their peers, ranking in the top 10% of Wall Street pros covered by TipRanks. Impressively, the firm’s analysts believe each ticker could climb over 50% higher in the year ahead. Let’s take a closer look.
BTRS Holdings (BTRS)
We’ll start with BTRS Holdings, or Billtrust, a leader in the payment processing niche. BTRS serves business customers in the US, with a B2B accounts receivable automation software platform. This holding company’s subsidiaries provide solutions for cloud-based software and integrated payment processing, including online ordering, invoicing, remittance capture, and accounts receivable. The company boasts over 40 verticals covering a range of industries, and a 98% customer retention rate.
Just last month, BTRS made a move to expand the value of its platform, through its acquisition of Belgium’s iController, a B2B collections software provider. The acquisition cost BTRS $58 million, which was paid for from cash on hand. iController will become a BTRS subsidiary, and continue operating in Belgium and the Netherlands – expanding BTRS’ footprint in Western Europe.
This move put some of BTRS’ cash holdings to sound use. The company finished Q3 this year with over $265 million in liquid assets, before the acquisition. BTRS also reported revenues of $41.4 million in Q3, up an 8% year-over-year. The gain was driven mainly be a solid performance in software and payments; that segment saw revenue increase by 21.5% yoy, to reach $26 million.
Even with that, however, the stock dropped sharply this year, losing 45% of its value. Yet, JPMorgan’s 5-star analyst Tien-tsin Huang sees the current low share price as a chance to buy in.
“Broad-based momentum across the business drove net revenue mildly ahead of expectations. Management suggested greater upside in the key Software/Payments segment,” Huang noted. “We think relative valuation is attractive… Stock is trading at a low enough discount now that compounding steady high-teens plus gross profit growth should be good enough for the stock to compound higher as sentiment improves from stable to improving growth.
To this end, Huang gives BTRS an Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating, with a $15 price target predicting 72% share growth in the year ahead. (To watch Huang’s track record, click here)
Overall, it’s clear from the Strong Buy consensus that Wall Street agrees with the bullish outlook here. The consensus view is based on a unanimous 5 recent reviews. The share price stands at $8.72 and the average price target of $14.20 implies ~63% upside potential. (See BTRS stock analysis on TipRanks)
Vonage Holdings (VG)
The second JPM pick we’ll look at is Vonage, a tech company in the telecom industry. Vonage has put together a package combining high tech know-how with telecom service, and offers its customers VOIP and cloud communications for contact center applications and communications APIs.
Vonage is working to change the way people think about using communications technology. The company noted the shift toward remote work and virtual connections during the pandemic – and especially how that increased the value of networked remote systems and internet communications. Vonage’s products include platforms to bundle these services together, along with legacy telecom systems. These products are flexible and scalable, designed to meet the needs of each customer.
The approach is working for Vonage, which has shown sequential gains in every quarter of this year, along with year-over-year gains. The 3Q21 report gave $358.3 million at the top line, and for the 9 months ending Sept 30, the company reported $1.04 billion in revenues. The 3Q revenue was up 12% you, and the 9-month total was also up 12%. These gains were driven by VCP revenue, which was up 25%, and API revenue, which gained 43%.
Vonage predicts plenty of future opportunity, at least in part due to pandemic related changes in customer engagement. According to a company study, many of the communications tech changes which the corona crisis pushed forward are likely to permanent – and customer do not see this as a bad thing. In fact, 47% of global consumers reported increasing their use of digital channels for business engagement in the last year-and-a-half, and 87% expect to maintain the higher level of digital engagement, or increase it, in the coming year.
So it should come as no surprise that JPMorgan’s 5-star analyst Sterling Auty has upgraded VG shares, from Neutral to Overweight (i.e. Buy).
Backing his stance, Auty writes: “The company’s transformation efforts are still underway as it pertains to honing the product and channel focus, but VCP now represents 80% of total revenue and all signs point to further execution in this area of the business. Despite the fact that communications names have greatly underperformed the software space year-to-date, Vonage is trading at 3.4x EV/Sales which still represents a significant discount to peers. This discount coupled with improving fundamentals underpin our belief that Vonage will continue to see outsized performance going forward.”
In line with this upbeat outlook, Auty puts a $26 price target on VG shares, implying an upside of 52% for the next 12 months. (To watch Auty’s track record, click here)
While JPM is bullish, the Street is evenly split here. The 8 analyst reviews on record are evenly split, with 4 Buys and 4 Holds, for a Moderate Buy consensus. The average price target here is $21.17, suggestive of ~24% one-year upside. (See VG stock analysis on TipRanks)
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.


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Consider forex trading with a low minimum deposit to begin with if you are new to the industry.
Creators on YouTube can also earn money for their long-form video content.
Sony's announcement came in a letter to artists on Friday, a copy of which has been shared with the BBC.
Item enhancement doesn’t seem that expensive — until you get to level 20 of that item. Up to that point, level boosts only required five item enhancers. By level 20, you would’ve already used up more than 600 of them. But the climb from level 21 to 30 requires more than 2,000 item enhancers, requiring players to buy the bigger gem packages that run anywhere from $40 to $100.
The third main component of Google’s advertising revenue is the Google Network, which at $23 billion in 2020 made up about 16% of its total ad revenues.
The Kosatka is a submarine which you can purchase from Warstock Cache & Carry for GTA$2,200,000 and will enable you to launch the Cayo Perico Heist. You can find out How to Start the Cayo Perico Heist through the link, but effectively you'll need to go to the Music Locker and speak to English Dave before embarking on a trip to the new, off-shore Los Santos resort.
The restaurant had to layoff three freshly hired employees when the pandemic hit. They reopened with half the dining room seats in storage last May.


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Photo by jerekeys
Crumbling auto factories in the Midwest are by no means confined to the Detroit metro area, as we see from Cincinnati’s recent troubles with the former headquarters and factory of the Crosley Corporation.
As reported over the weekend on Cincinnati.com, the factory at 1329 Arlington Street in Cincinnati’s Camp Washington section, an industrial area sandwiched between railroad tracks and Interstate 75, has been on a slow decline since its current owner vacated it in 2006, ultimately leading the city to condemn the 10-story, 300,000-square-foot building in March of this year. Graffiti now covers much of the inside and outside of the building and vandals have broken or stolen many of its windows and fixtures. The current owner, who bought the factory in 1999, reportedly owes nearly $170,000 in back taxes on the property.
Samuel Hanaford and Sons designed the factory in 1929 for Powel Crosley Jr.’s Crosley Radio Corporation, then one of the country’s leading producers of inexpensive radios. By the late 1930s, Crosley had expanded to a number of factories in and around Cincinnati, but the Arlington Street factory remained the company’s headquarters and the place where Crosley assigned his engineers to begin work on a light automobile. According to Michael Banks, Crosley historian and author of the recently released Crosley and Crosley Motors: An Illustrated History of America’s First Compact Car and the Company that Built it, Crosley built some of its earliest cars at the Arlington Street factory during the spring and summer of 1939 before transferring production to the company’s plant on Spring Grove Avenue in Cincinnati and to its Shelvador factory in Richmond, Indiana. Crosley sold the factory along with the Crosley Corporation in 1946 to AVCO to focus on building cars. AVCO closed the factory in 1960.
The city has also ordered the current owners to either clean up the building or tear it down, though it seems even the city finds that latter option undesirable. “We are not advocating demolition,” Ed Cunningham, the city’s chief building code enforcement officer told Cincinnati.com. “This is a stout building. The floors are as thick as something you would find at Fort Knox. It can be saved. And put to a good use. But it must be protected from the elements and from vandals.”
The city apparently already has a good use or two in mind. A couple of years ago, it sought $4.3 million in federal funds to transform the building into a technical and research facility, but more recently it seems to be eyeballing the Crosley factory for redevelopment into residential and retail use or into an urban farming project as part of Camp Washington’s urban renewal plan for the neighborhood.
UPDATE (28.June 2012): In a court date earlier this week, the city ordered the building’s current owner to clean it up by August 28.
UPDATE (5.May 2014): According to a report on Fox 19, the Crosley building could soon be redeveloped into 238 “market-rate” apartments at a cost of $25 million to $35 million. The article cites Core Redevelopment of Indianapolis as the redeveloper but makes no mention of the current owner.


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I plead guilty to enjoying a cold beer or two, and I’ve watched with amazement as the decade-long bull market in the craft beer industry shows no signs of abating.
Retailers saw some glimmers of hope in August, as sales rose 2.7 percent from July 2009. The increase represents the largest month-over-month gain in more than three years, however, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, these numbers are still 5.3 percent below the same month last year.

 According to the National Retail Federation, the numbers are not quite as rosy when auto sales, restaurants and gas stations are excluded. The organization finds just a 0.7 percent increase compared to the month before, and a decrease of 4.3 percent year-over-year. Much of the gains in August came from the “Cash for Clunkers” program, and while this boosted numbers in the short term, it may weigh down sales numbers in the future.

 "Many Americans who traded in their vehicles have become saddled with monthly car payments, which reduces the amount of money they’re able to spend in other areas," said Rosalind Wells, chief economist for NRF, in a statement. "As a result, it remains to be seen how the 'Cash for Clunkers' program will impact traditional retail sales."

 Per the U.S. Commerce Department, most business categories saw an uptick in performance compared to July 2009. General merchandise stores moved up 1.6 percent and department stores specifically rose 2.4 percent (though department stores were down 4.7 percent year over year). Food and beverage stores showed modest gains of 0.5 percent. Grocery stores specifically increased 0.3 percent, but were down 1.4 percent compared to August 2008.

 The only categories to post a month-over-month loss were building material and garden equipment supply stores (down 1.2 percent) and furniture and home furnishing businesses (down 1.6 percent), indicating that consumers are still holding off on major home improvement projects and furniture purchases. Compared to last August, the numbers are even starker. Building material stores were down 12.8 percent, and home furnishing stores were 13.6 percent.

 Among the other categories, electronics and appliance stores were up 1.1 percent, food services and drinking places were up 0.3 percent, and health and personal care stores saw a rise of 0.4 percent. The latter two categories were the only ones to post year-over-year gains compared, with health and personal care businesses up 2.9 percent and food services and drinking places up 0.7 percent.

 "Shoppers were a bit more comfortable digging into their wallets last month, and retailers are hopeful that we’ve turned a corner," said Wells. "It is encouraging to see some momentum building as retailers anticipate the all-important holiday season."


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As the main cost of TV, LCD TV's price fluctuations often have a significant impact on the TV industry. Recently, the well-known market adjustment agency IHS announced a set of latest trends in the price of LCD panels in the international market, among which the price of small-size LCD panels has risen while the 55-inch panel has seen a continuous decline.
The panel of international market prices announced by the IHS was updated on April 21, 2016. According to the price trend, the prices of 32-inch 720P high-definition panels showed an increase, with the maximum increase reaching 2 US dollars. 40-inch 1080P full HD panel, the maximum increase of 2 US dollars. 43-inch 1080P full HD panel, the price increase is 1 US dollar. 48-inch 1080P full HD panel, the price will remain unchanged. 55-inch 1080P full HD panel, the price drop of 3 US dollars.
From the above data, it can be seen that the prices of the popular 32-inch LCD TV panels in the market have rebounded. One of the reasons for this is that many panel makers have shifted their production focus to large-size panels with higher profits. More noteworthy is that, like the large-screen panels such as 55 inches, prices have continued to decline. Because the domestic sales season will drive the panel shipments, TV manufacturers will also increase the number of panel purchases. Panel makers are eager to remove inventory pressure, so it's no surprise that price cuts have occurred.
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By WRAL Tech Wire
DURHAM, N.C. – The Makery will occupy the “Smoffice” this summer in Durham.
Smoffice – short for world’s smallest office – is the latest public relations effort by Durham to attract more attention as a startup capital for new and emerging businesses.
Launched by the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Durham, Inc. (DDI), the Smoffice campaign will provide the winner free office space, furniture, a tablet computer, technical support, and advisory services plus a rent-free condo for six months.
The Makery – a flash sale site that will offer products made by North Carolina artists – is a startup based out of Galesburg, Ill., led by a team of three sisters: Krista Anne, Brita, and Sarah Rose Nordgren who have ties to the Bull City. The three sisters who founded The Makery originally grew up in Durham and will be moving back to town next month to take up the 30-foot space between May 1 and Oct. 31 to begin building their business.
“We all grew up in Durham, but have since lived around the world, including Silicon Valley, Massachusetts, Italy, and Sweden,” said Krista Anne, who found out about the competition via Twitter. “We are blown away by what we see happening in Durham’s startup scene and are eager to join in.”
The Makery was one of 21 companies who competed in the “Smoffice” national competition.
The Makery has a bit of steam coming into Durham as the company recently reached its goal of raising $4,500 on Kickstarter to build the initial Web platform for selling North Carolina wares.
The plan calls for Makery members to receive curated deals on a selection of limited edition art, apparel, and home wares that are all handmade by one of that week’s featured local artists. When a consumer purchases an item from The Makery, he or she will pay less than what they would pay at a craft fair or on an artist’s Etsy site, and will also be exposed to new artists and pieces that have been carefully chosen as “Makery Picks.”
To the artists, The Makery brings a large member base of potential customers, and also provides additional exposure through features on its blog and special, one-of-a-kind opportunities for VIP members.
“The selection committee was enamored with The Makery,” said Matthew Coppedge, DDI’s director of marketing. “We love the way they are combining e-commerce and Web design with a real focus on local artists to give consumers a chance to find great art, pottery, and more at a deep discount.”
The Nordgrens, in addition to the free space and condo, will receive introductions and connections to fellow entrepreneurs and business leaders through DDI and the Chamber.
The total value of the Smoffice package is more than $20,000.
The Smoffice creators hope the prime location of the space will give The Makery a good jumping off point for conversations with business leaders and artists in town.
“We have high hopes for this concept and believe it shows that Durham is home to more than just tech startups and is a place where almost any entrepreneur can thrive,” said Adam Klein, startup strategist for the Durham Chamber. “We love the energy The Makery is going to display daily on Main Street, and the Nordgrens will be able to use the space to connect easily with Durham’s artists and art lovers alike to build a strong base before launching.”
The Smoffice is located in the front of the Beyu Caffe on Durham’s Main Street. Including a desk designed by Center Studio Architecture and built by McDonald York, the space is inside the front window of the coffee shop. The condo comes courtesy Mangum 506, which is nearby.
Klein and Coppedge came up with the “Smoffice” concept. They also created the Stampede, which over two programs has produced 15 companies that remain in downtown Durham. The Stampede packages included free office space, high-speed bandwidth, and other goodies.
Flash sale sites, only a few years old, are tremendously popular. American visits to them have increased 314 percent over the last two years, according to recent reports.
Next up for the Smoffice is The World’s Smallest Ribbon Cutting, complete with tiny scissors and string in lieu of ribbon. In the coming weeks, the Chamber and DDI also plan to announce and launch their next startup initiative.